European stocks closed higher on Friday, but marked their worst weekly losses since the middle of March as rising US-China tensions added to concerns that a global economic downturn might be here longer than feared.
The pan-European STOXX 600 ended 0.5 percent higher, with miners rising 2.8 percent after data showed that China’s industrial production climbed by a faster-than-expected 3.9 percent last month.
European shares lost some ground by afternoon trading as Washington acted to block shipments of semiconductors to Huawei Technologies Co (華為) from global chipmakers, in an action ramping up trade tensions with China again.
Global stock markets have largely stalled this month after a solid rebound last month on fears of a possible resurgence in COVID-19 cases as countries ease restrictions and a worrying outlook from US officials on economic recovery.
The STOXX 600 recorded a 3.8 percent weekly loss, while most regional indices also saw their biggest weekly drop in two months when coronavirus-induced selling peaked.
“The market is torn between stimulus, new infections and economic data,” Keith Temperton at Tavira Securities Ltd said. “The data is bad, but the stimulus is outweighing it for now, but I don’t imagine it’s going to last.”
Europe’s semiconductor stocks took a hit in response to the latest trade comments, with Germany’s Dialog Semiconductor PLC and Siltronic AG falling 3.3 percent and 1 percent respectively.
Keeping Paris shares almost flat, chipmaker STMicroelectronics NV fell 3 percent.
An early reading of Germany’s first-quarter GDP showed that Europe’s largest economy contracted by 2.2 percent in the first quarter, its steepest slump since the 2009 financial crisis, with worse expected by mid-year.
However, eurozone finance ministers were holding a meeting by teleconference to discuss fiscal measures designed to mitigate the economic fallout.
German Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz plans a supplementary budget, which could involve taking on 100 billion euros (US$108.25 billion) in extra debt, Der Spiegel magazine reported.
Supporting market gains on Friday, German food-processing equipment maker GEA Group jumped 10 percent after reporting better-than-expected first quarter results and confirmed its forecast this year.
The UK’s biggest telecoms group BT Group PLC gained 5.4 percent after a report that it was in talks to sell a stake in its wholly owned network subsidiary, Openreach.
However, the company said the report was “inaccurate” after markets closed.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained